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Bensoniella oregona; photograph John Game, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYJohn Game, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bensoniella oregona (Abrams & Bacig.) C.V.Morton

Oregon bensoniella; Bensoniella

Saxifragaceae · Oregon, California

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Bensoniella oregona (Abrams & Bacig.) C.V.Morton: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Abrams & Bacig.) Morton.

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Bensoniella oregona, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBensoniella oregona, photograph Schubbay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBensoniella oregona, photograph Russ Holmes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-6.0°C
Record low -19.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,408mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–50DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bensoniella is a monotypic genus of plants in the saxifrage family containing the single species Bensoniella oregona (also, B. oregana), which is known by the common name Oregon bensoniella, or simply bensoniella. This plant is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. This is a plant of the wet forest understory and meadows above 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) in elevation. It is a perennial herb which grows from a rhizome and bears rounded to heart-shaped lobed leaves with woolly petioles and tall, thin racemes of flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bensoniella", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,787 mm of 2,406 mm) falls in November to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

2,406 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,787 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 455 mm, driest month July at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,748 mm to 3,238 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,408 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,406 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -6.0 °C, the absolute minimum -19.5 °C, 3,678 frost nights in 44 years, 83.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.4 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -1.6 °C to 1.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +290 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bensoniella oregona through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -0.4 °C; 2,406 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-19.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 9–50RH 52–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 16 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 6–89 / 7–1010 / 9–1112 / 11–1416 / 15–1720 / 19–2125 / 24–2625 / 24–2723 / 22–2417 / 16–1810 / 9–117 / 6–8
Night °C0 / -2–10 / -2–11 / -1–22 / 0–35 / 3–68 / 6–811 / 9–1111 / 10–119 / 8–106 / 5–72 / 1–30 / -2–1
Rain mm370 / 262–525307 / 218–428289 / 202–399188 / 134–243121 / 89–14358 / 34–7714 / 7–1520 / 12–2555 / 24–62163 / 118–215366 / 262–481455 / 338–627
DLI10 / 9–1216 / 14–1723 / 21–2532 / 30–3439 / 38–4345 / 43–4950 / 48–5144 / 42–4634 / 32–3722 / 20–2412 / 10–139 / 7–10
RH %62 / 57–6462 / 58–6363 / 61–6562 / 61–6461 / 58–6358 / 56–6153 / 50–5753 / 50–5652 / 49–5656 / 53–5963 / 58–6562 / 57–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 16 grid cells holding the 22 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 944:1126 (42.775, -123.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 16 distinct grid cells holding 22 of the 22 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 944:1126 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-123.750, lapse-corrected +290 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 756 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOregon, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker42.595, -123.872 · in the densest population, 39 records (64% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 61 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 22 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 13 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 39 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 61 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bensoniella oregona, photograph 1did not loadBensoniella oregona, photograph 2did not loadBensoniella oregona, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Schubbay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Russ Holmes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Coptis laciniata Coptis laciniata Oregon goldthread Photo: CC0, author not statedKalmiopsis leachiana Kalmiopsis leachiana North Umpqua kalmiopsis Photo: CC BY, Dee Shea HimesChrysolepis chrysophylla Chrysolepis chrysophylla Giant chinquapin Photo: CC0, author not statedGarrya buxifolia Garrya buxifolia Dwarf silktassel Photo: CC BY, David AndersonPenstemon rattanii Penstemon rattanii Rattan's beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Hank RaizenLilium bolanderi Lilium bolanderi Bolander's lily Photo: CC BY, Parker James Lloyd

Names & registers

Also known as Bensonia oregona; Bensoniella oregana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Saxifragaceae
Described by
(Abrams & Bacig.) C.V.Morton
Native to
Oregon, California
Wild records
61 in range · 13 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 3754567 is Bensoniella oregona (Abrams & Bacig.) Morton; the page links Kew's Bensoniella oregona (Abrams & Bacig.) C.V.Morton, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-123.750, lapse-corrected +290 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Bensoniella oregona (Abrams & Bacig.) C.V.Morton (the item's: IPNI 790350-1, POWO 31244-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia redirects Bensoniella oregona to Bensoniella, this species' genus (Q16324500), which holds one accepted species in Kew's WCVP
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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